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Are Child Sex-Robots Inevitable?

Promo from the TV show Battlestar Galactica. Spoiler: the show features a good amount of robot-human sex

With every new technology comes a way to use that technology for sex. Porn dominated the early Internet. Smartphones became the mailing service for scandalous selfies. Google Glass has already been used to make (and watch) an immersive XXX film starring that James Deen. So, it’s not surprising that when academics get together to talk about robots, their potential erotic use comes up. Rosie won’t just be doing the Jetsons’ housework, wrote a business professor and a futurist a couple years back, she’ll be working the corner as a robot prostitute. They argued robot sex workers would eliminate human exploitation, ensure a disease-free experience (as long as the robots were hosed down after), and could be enjoyed in places where prostitution is illegal. It may sound weird, but think about the intimate relationship you have with your iPhone. You’ve taken it to bed multiple times already; imagine if Siri could actually massage you.

“We’ve had sex toys for as long as mankind, and womankind, have been around,” said Ron Arkin, Georgia Tech’s Mobile Robot Lab director, while speaking on a robot ethics panel at Berkeley on Friday. “But how will we deal with robot intimacy? Will we consider it beastiality? Could we use it to treat sex offenders?” Once we start creating sex-robots, what will be the limits we put on them? It’s not a human being so you should theoretically be able to rock your human-like Rumba however you want, but there may be some situations that create moral panics even if the Cylon-victim involved is just a bundle of algorithms and plastic. I asked the panel how society would deal ethically and legally with a hypothetical company that starts producing child sex-robots to satisfy deviant sexual desires.

CB2 — a child robot that’s not programmed perversely.

Arkin said that while he doesn’t approve of child sex bots for recreational use, he’d like to see them used for research purposes. “Child-like robots could be used for pedophiles the way methadone is used to treat drug addicts,” said Arkin. He said research should be done to test the effectiveness of such a treatment. “There are no presumptions that this will assuredly yield positive results – I only believe it is worth investigating in a controlled way to possibly provide better protection to society from recidivism in sex offenders,” he said. “If we can save some children, I think it’s a worthwhile project.”

He added that he did worry about the possible creation of a black market that would offer the robots outside of a clinical setting. This isn’t the first time Arkin has broached the indelicate subject. After he made a comment about it in the press years ago, he says he got a call from a clinician who works with sex offenders who wanted to do the research. However, prepubescent sex bots don’t exist yet (at least that we know about). There are bot-like babies: People in the “reborner movement” buy incredibly human-looking baby dolls for as much as $4,000 — sometimes outfitted with heartbeats and chests that rise and fall — though they want the babies to protect and nurture, not to exploit sexually. If an entrepreneur started up KidSexBots-R-Us, would it be legal?

Ryan Calo, a law professor at the University of Washington, thinks it might be, based on the Supreme Court’s treatment of child pornography. “What appears to be child porn, but isn’t, is not illegal,” said Calo. Making or possessing child pornography results in severe legal penalties; those who watch child porn sometimes get longer sentences than people convicted of actually molesting children. However, in 2002, the Supreme Court drew a line between child porn and “virtual child porn” where the “child” is actually a young-looking adult or a computer-rendered image. It said images that are wholly faked, no matter how realistic they were, are legal. So the law might see sex with a “virtual child” the same way. At least in the U.S.

If you’re a Canadian, the hypothetical KidSexBots-R-Us could get you in trouble. Last year, a 48-year-old Canadian man ordered a 4-foot, 2-inch school-uniform-wearing sex doll made of “foam-like material.” For some reason, it was intercepted and unboxed by Canada Border Services agents at Toronto airport. They arrested the doll fan and charged him with child pornography. According to local media, child sex dolls are illegal in Canada, which doesn’t bode well for child sex bots in the Great White North. The man has pleaded not guilty and faces a trial this month. It will be a test case for virtual sexual freedom.

We likely have quite a few years before an autonomous robot that looks and acts like a child will be on the scene. But I’m sure that many people would be horrified at the idea of that robot being molested and do their best to shut down such a company even if the law embraces it. “It’s a decision for society to make,” said robot expert Noel Sharkey, adding that people could circumvent the question by saying their sex robots were just “short adult robots.”

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The movie ‘Her’ has already made the public aware of falling for a voice. Why not fall for a bot? The worlds media wants everyone to hate, despise and loath anyone richer than themselves. This would bred out the rich. See, they would be the only ones to afford a SXbot (my coined term). So no more hanky panky making babies by the silver spoon group. A SXbot could reduce crime against women and kids as well. However there would be a down turn in tax revenue. No one going out to find a life partner. Why go to a concert/dining,movie,adventure,sport etc.. to be with people. Just stay pluged-in to cable/twitter/facebook and share with SXbot. Well, we will still read Forbes!

The whole idea behind banning child pornography is that it is abusive and damaging. Therefor the logic goes that not only creation, but posession must also be illegal. (Reduce demand, and you reduce the supple. Reduce supply, and you reduce child abuse)

Conversely, banning things like sex robots, cartoons, etc basically amounts to banning thoughtcrime. I think the whole idea is disgusting, but I also don’t think we should be making something illegal that doesn’t hard anyone.

It’s inevitable. Because of the money to be made from it and the deesire of people to engage in it. Vices are always profitable…

Humans have a dirty little secret that nobody likes to talk about. You don’t have to look any further than the internet to see how much interest there is in this subject. Or all the “ordinary” people that have been busted for it.

I thought it was a fascinating — if distasteful — question. I thought the Canadian case was particularly fascinating. Should a man go to prison for wanting to have sex with a doll if he has done nothing (and looked at nothing) that hurts a real human child?

Well think of it this way, would they rather have sex with an inanimate object (that being the sex doll) or a animate one? As long as they get to dish our their disturbing fetish on something that won’t complain, move, or talk back (necro excluded) I don’t see the issue here. It’s like if men don’t look at porn to jerk off once in awhile they’ll build up aggression/stress and take it out on whomever which may lead to rape. Some people just don’t have the tolerance or high will power to deal with or control whatever they feel good towards to.

Good thought. But harm with real actions exaggerated. Society tells them that was rape and they get a moral trauma when it didn’t. REAL rape, of corse is another deal. REAL rapist deserve to die. But what is REAL rape? It’s same like with adults.

If I may comment. I am a paedophile. Sexually attracted to prepubescent females. The idea that a child sex robot will help is shows ignorance. We do not have a fetish. As much as it makes people made when they hear it. We have a sexual orientation. We are not just sexually interested in the children we are attracted to, but emotionally and romantically as well. I love being around little girls. I like them, how they are, what they do, how they act, how they think, what they like… just everything. I have a “little girl friend” whom I am very close with. We love each others company, we like playing together, we like talking and learning and sharing with each other. I am in love with her. At the moment she is in love with me. Yes, I do find her very sexy and sometimes I let her know, but she also knows I love her mind, her personality, I love all of her. Not just her cute bubble butt. Contrary to popular belief she will likely move on before I do. She will be the one to “grow up” and seek boys her age. As much as that will make me sad I want her to move on. Healthy paedophiles like myself have a healthy perspective we had to create without the help of society. Many paedophiles do not develop this. They become monsters, because of society. A “sex robot” will not change this situation. A sex robot will satiate a minority of men who fetishize children. Most paedophiles are not like that. I hope that you do not delete my comment because it expresses an unpopular viewpoint. Voices like mine are often snuffed out because we go against the popular narrative.